

.^5i 



HOLLINGER 
pH8.5 

MILL RUN F3-1543 



LETTER 



OF 



SAMUEL CARUTHERS 



TO HIS CONSTITUENTS, 



EXPLAINING HIS PAST ACTION, DEFINING HIS PRESENT 
POSITION, AND THE POSITION OF PARTIES. 



WASHINGTON : 

PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1856. 



LETTER 



To MY Constituents : During my short congressional career I have 
never before had occasion to especially address you by letter. I have hitherto 
been content to rest upon the reasons for my action, declared on the floor of 
the House, or stand silently upon the record I had made by my votes. 

The reasons for doing so now arise from the breaking down of the old wall 
which divided parties — the new elements which have been mingled into our 
national politics — the alarming isms now distinctly formed in the country — 
the peril that threatens the very existence of our institutions, and that solemn 
duty which rests ujwn every Kepresentative who would deal fairly with his 
p(?ople, to declare, frankly, his present positions and his future intentions. I 
should be unworthy of the high trusts you have confided to my keeping — 
unworthy of the kindness and confidence you have so generously lavished 
upon me — unworthy of my native State — unworthy of the regard of good 
men, if 1 should shrink from the performance of this duty now. 

We have had a most exciting and protracted struggle in the organization 
of the House. I have voted uniformly for the Democratic nominees for the 
speakership. For this I am charged with the betrayal of the \Vhig party, 
and with an abandonment of the principles upon which I was elected. And 
who is it that makes these charges? Is it the old-line Whigs? I have net 
heard of an old-line Whig, either in my district or elsewhere, who does not 
indorse my course. These charges are made by the Know Aothing press of 
my State, and by anonymous Know Nothing scribblers, the latter of whom, 
never having had an honest motive themselves, have no conception of the 
thing in others. They charge me tvith bet raying the Whig party ! They who 
decoyed it into their councils, and assassinated it in the dark — ^Acy who come 
forth from their conclaves, with their hands dripjiing with its blood — they who 
met at Philadelphia in convention, and vauiitingly proclaimed its death — with 
a pharisaical affectation of party, declare that they are not *■ responsible for its 
obnoxious acts and violated pledges ;" that it has " elevated sectional hostility 
into a j)ositive element of political power, and brought our institutions into 



pcriiy Yes, while I stand a mourner at the grave of the Whig party, they 
are rejoicing at its death and calumniating its life ! Yet these men have the 
unblushing hardihood to twit me with abandonment of that once noble party! 
Was ever impudence more gigantic and more absurd? 

But it is sometimes softly and gently whispered that the American party 
is the Whig party in disguise. If this is so, they have solemnly declared a 
lie in their conventions, and it is a cheat and a fraud upon the Democrats in 
the order. So they have either abandoned their party, and have no right to 
abuse me, or are engaged in a fraud which makes their abuse a compliment. 
I tell these gentlemen that they have slain 7ny first love, and left me a political 
widower : and I have a perfect right to marry another party if I see proper 1 

I am charged with having abandoned the principles upon v^'hich I was 
elected. Does not every man in my district know that the Kansas-Nebraska 
question was the controlling issue in my last canvass ? Does not every man 
know that it was my position on this issue that gave me my large majority in 
a Democratic district ? Does not every man know that 1 obtained as many 
Democratic votes as I did Whig votes ? Does not every man know that I 
declared my principles, in a speech delivered in the House of Representatives, 
on the 7th of April, 1854 ? To stop the mouths of my accusers I will give 
an extract from that speech. I said then, speaking of the Kansas-Nebraska 
bill, that — 

■ " I will not pause long to dwell upon its party effect ; for, in my judgment, 
' the questions involved override all party considerations. It is true, this bill 
' is presented to us as an Administration measure. It is true that I am here 
' as a Whig ; but I am not here to give this Administration a factious oppo- 
* sition. I am not here to oppose any measure brought forward by it, merely 
' because it is brought forward by it. I am here, uncommitted to a blind 
' opposition or a blind support, to follow to the end the dictates of my own 
' judgment and conscience, and the will of those who sent me. 

" In this instance I believe the Administration has taken high national 
' o-round ; that it has planted itself upon a great American principle — the 
' principle of self-government ; a principle involved in none of our j)arty issues ; 
' a principle dearer than any party considerations ; a principle upon which all 
' sound, national men of all parties may meet and stand, as upon ground alike 
' cherished and alike dear. It was this principle ingrafted in the compromises 
'of 1350, that commended them so warmly to the American heart; it was 
' this principle which was ratified by both parties in their conventions atBal- 
<■ timore, and it is for this principle I speak to-day. 

" Sir, this is no war between the Administration and its opponents — no war 
' between Whigs and Democrats as such ; but, disguise it as you may, it is a 
' war between Free-Soilism on the one hand, and the right of the people to 
' self-government on the other.^' 

Upon these declarations I went into the canvass. I was elected then, 
declaring that the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska bill " ivere dearer than 
any party considerations" — " a principle upon ivhich all good men of all 
parties might meet and stand, as vjjon ground alike cherished and alike dear;" 
that they " overrode all party considerations." Being thus elected, when I 
came to cast my first vote for Speaker, 1 found that neither the " South 




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subject of slavery'' — iliat liis ^^ polit'uid ciislmcc commenced since i/uitjhod " / / 
1 will conmicnt no furllicr on lliis letter! 

Mr, FuLLEK became a caiidiclatc for Canal Coniniissloncr, and, wliile a can- 
didate, made si)eec!ies — amon^ otlu-rs one in Allcj^liany City, rci)oitcd in the 
Pittsbnrg Gazette, then a ^^ liii,' jjaper, and then supjioiting Mr. FiLLKU. 
In that speocii, published at the time, and uncontradicted, Mr. Fli.i.ku says: 
" Let the people of the Soulh talk us tliey please, ituvery tron a dark and daiiming slain upon 
their escvlcheon." » • " Lit us say to the prmid waves of sluvt-ry, ns ihcy beat ttgitiiint the 
harriers of freedom, 'Tiius far sliiJt thou go, ami no further.' Lei us give our lands free, in 
every sense of llie word, to our cilizins, ujid to tiie poor and pj>presstd qf other nations,' * 
" As lords of freedom, we had a duly to jterform to lh<' South. Lit us do it with a proper 
regard to our friends liure, hut let us INSIST ON TIIE EARLIEST TRACTICAL AHO- 
LITION OF SLAVERY" ! ! ! 

Ay, ^'THE EARLIEST PRACTICAL ABOLITION OF SLA- 
VERY." Look at it! For -' free suW — ''opposed to the extension of 
slavery" — in favor of its ^^ earliest practical aholllion'' — intriguing for the 
nomination of a Free-Soil convention ; and in addition to all this, when the 
final vote for Speaker came — the last vote — the vote whicli '• tried the souls 
of men" — the vote which was to determine whether Hanks, the political 
Abolitionist — the Black Republican — the northern Know Nothing — the 
'• Union-sliding" — the " absorption" B.\nks, should be elected Speaker of the 
American House of Representatives, or that accomplished gentleman and 
sound, national, and conservative man. Governor Wilmam Aiken — be, under 
the flimsy and miserable pretext of having ])aired olF with a man who was 
present, being present himself, dodged, and did not vote at all ! 

And now with his record fairly before you — elected upon the principles on 
which I was elected — I submit it to your candor, if I would not have exposed 
myself to the just scorn and contempt of every good man of my district, of any 
party, if 1 had voted for Henry M. Fuller 1 I voted for William A. Richard- 
son, of Illinois. I knew him. I had served with him in the last Congress. I 
knew him to be the very soul of honor. A man whose " word was as good as 
his bond ;" a man whose large heart could take all the Union into its afiec- 
tions ; a man w ho was all seamed with scars received in battles for the rights 
of the South ; a man who had been passed around by the Abolitionists, 
(w^ithin black lines,) in what they call their "roll of infamy," because of his 
gallant bearing in those battles ; a man who has stood unmoved w bile mad 
fanaticism poured its vials of wrath upon his head; a man who breasted the 
storm in " its w ildest ragings" after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill ; 
the man who bid them a proud and bold defiance ; the statesman who was 
our champion and leader through all the great struggle upon tliat bill ; the 
statesman who had counseled liis friends in the North to ''stand and brave 
the fire without flinching;" the man who, full of courage and patriotism, dares 
to do whatever his large heart approves and his comprehensive mind suggests ; 
and a man, too, who is of the West, western — ulio is of us and with us. I 
would not, I should not, I coidd not, I did not he-itate for a moment which to 
choose — this man, or i/e/ir// il/. i'»//(?-. AVAS I NOT RIGHT? 

I had seen Judge Douglas, of Illinois, after anxious deliberation, introduce 
that bill, and stake his political life upon the justice of its principles. 1 had 
seen the Administration commit its fortunes to it ; I had seen the great body 



8 

of the national Whigs in the Senate, in the House, in the country, come up 
to its support ; I had seen the Democracy adopt it as an article in their creed 
of faith ; I had seen the people of my district, as almost one man, indorse 
the principles of that bill; and icas I to desert the gallant ship, with her tried 
and trusted crew, as she plowed her majestic way, unmoved by the storm 
and unshaken by the billows, to go out in a miserable yawl, under the com- 
mand of such a "straggler" of a captain — such a " Latter-Day Saint" as this 
Henry M. Fuller ? 

But, it is said that Mr. Fuller is a Know Nothing, and therefore I should 
have given him my vote. The contest for the speakership developed the fact 
that there are now three parties in the country. The northern jvnow Nothing 
and Abolition party, /usee/ under the name of Black Republican, the (so-called) 
" National Americans," and the Democratic party. This Know Nothing 
party was born amidst the factitious excitement manufactured by Abolitionists 
and disunionists out of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. It sprung 
at once, "like Minerva from the brain of Jove," full armed, and entered the 
political arena. In the morning of its existence, it was full of promise. It 
declared that it would say to the angry waves, "peace — be still F^ that it was 
the only broad, national, conservative party ; that its great, par amount mission 
was to save the Union, which was imperiled by agitation. Relying upon 
these promises, confiding in these, assurances, many good men everywhere — 
many in my district — went into this organization. I went tivice (and but 
twice) into their councils. I '■^ saw Sam." It took two visits to see him all 
over. I made them ; I saw enough, and determined to never look on his face 
again ! 

In dealing frankly with you, it is due that I should make this acknowledg- 
ment. I would not have the vote of an anti-Know Nothing in my district 
without his knowledge that I had been in their councils ; nor would I have 
the vote of a Know Nothing without his knowing that I am not of his order. 
I may prove wanting in ability to serve ; I shall never prove wanting in candor 
towards you. It has been the habit of my life to defend my course against 
all odds when I believe it is right, and to acknowledge my errors when I 
believe I have done wrong. I freely admit to you, that I ought never to have 
gone into a secret political society of any kind whatever; that they are wrong 
in principle, against the very genius of our institutions, dangerous in practice, 
and should be avoided by all men, of all parties. I objected then, and object 
now, to the whole machinery of its organization ; I objected then, and object 
now, to an indiscriminate proscription of naturalized citizens from office; I 
objected then, and object now, to anything that even looks like making a reli- 
gious test. A Protestant by birth, a Protestant by education, by prejudice, 
by reason, by faith ; a Protestant in all, (I regret to say e.vcejjt the practice,') 
was a Catholic organization formed, to brand me as unworthy of public trust 
because of my religious opinions, I would call upon every honest Catholic in 
tlie land to aid me in striking it down. As I would " have them do unto me, 
1 will do unto them." 

The Catholic and Protestant have fought side by side on those battle-fields 
where our liberties were won ; and when " pestilence has stalked at noon-day" 
through our cities, leaving a track of desolation and death, we have seen the 
Protestant and the Catholic ministry again laboring side by side to stay its 



9 

awful ravages — to administer Italiii to the sick, consolation to the dyini^, 
and doccMit interment to tiur dead ! If we kneel not at the same altars, under 
the same Ibrms, we worship tlu; same God ; we are pointet! to the same 
accountability for sin, and to the same Heaven as a reward for piety ! Why 
should not we leave controverted points of theoIo<:y to the ministry of the 
churches? Why should not we ((n/mcn go on — as wo should go on — in bro- 
therly love and confidence ? As 1 have opposed the (lrai,'ging of ])olilics vp 
into the pulpit, 1 oppose ilrawing religion donn into politics. All thinking 
men agree that the only real danger to our institutions arises from making 
the subject of slavery a sectional question. May I not resi)ectfully ask 
the Protestant ministry of the South to pause and reflect, that if they bring 
the doings of churches into political discussion, they might injure Protest- 
antism ? INFay not the Catholic turn upon you with the fact, that of three 
thousand preachers who denounced the judgments of God upon our devoted 
heads who voted for the Kansas-Aebraska bill, there was not upon the ])aper 
the name of a single Catholic minister? May he not show that none of his 
clergymen are in the Halls of Congress, while u'c iiavef icc/j/z/ot/f/ i^rcoc/ttr* ? 
May lie not show that he has never refused to take the " holy communion" 
with a slaveholder — that his church iji the North are not stirring the waters 
of sectional strife — that they never do, and never have, interfered with the 
delicate question of slavery ? and by showing these things, drawing these 
contrasts, may they not commend their church to the South, and weaken 
yours ? These are questions for you to consider. Jt is but just to a large 
and respectable Protestant denomination — 1 allude to the regular old Baptists — 
to say that they have never, anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances, 
either North or South, interfered in political afiairs. 

Why should Protestants agitate this subject? Why should they endeavor 
to build uj) ^ political party upon a subject on which they can have r\o polit- 
ical action 1 You arc forbidden to act by the Constitution of the United 
States. The Constitution says, that " Congress shall malcc no law respecting 
the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the frix exercise thereof." Take 
this case : Suppose a President, having sworn in Know Nothing councils 
that he will appoint no Roman Catholic to office, is elected. He takes an 
oath to support the Constitution of the United States. That Constitution 
says, that '' no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any 
o^cc or public trust under the United States.'" Suppose, then, a man is 
presented for office: does he not have to inquire, under his frst oath, if the 
man is a Catholic? If he is, then he must refuse him on that account. If 
he does so refuse him, he violates his last oath, because he then swore he 
would make " no religious test." Is conmient necessary ? 

But 1 have been asked if I would vote for a man who owes temporal alle- 
giance to a foreign Power? I answer, no. I would not vote for any man, 
of any religion, for any office, who is bound by such an allegiance. 

As to a spiritual allegiance, my understanding is that we ail owe that alle- 
giance to a Power whose Throne is outside of the United States — to God, 
in Heaven ! 

But in all these views, perhaps, no Catholic or Protestant disagrees with 
me, and I will not elaborate them further. 

I stated to you, that the great reason for my having ever gone into- a coun- 



cil was, I was assured that the preservation of the Union was the " rock on 
which they buih their church" — that men who joined in the North, as well as 
the South, made a " burnt offering" of their prejudices, and joined with hands 
locked in hands in a living chain around the Constitution, in a common 
brotherhood, and in a comm,on defense. I was told, too, that I could with- 
draw if I was not pleased. 

I ask every Know Nothing who reads this, if such was not his understand- 
ing of the objects of the American order? Then I ask them to lay aside 
their partialities and prejudices, and, thinkingly as patriots, to look back at its 
history. 

V It met in Convention at Philadelphia in June last — it laid down a platform 
— it put forth the celebrated twelfth section. Here it is : 

"Resolved, That the American party, having risen upon the ruins, and in spite of the oppo- 
sition, of the Whig and Democratic parties, cannot be held in any manner responsible for the 
obnoxious acts or violated pledges of either; that the systematic agitation of the slavery ques- 
tion by those parties has elevated sectional hostility into a positive element of political power, 
and brought our institutions into peril; it has, therefore, become the imperative duty of the 
American party to interpose for the purpose of giving peace to the country and perpetuity to 
the Union; that, as experience has shown it impossible to reconcile opinions so extreme as 
those that separate the disputants, and as there can be no dishonor in submitting to the laws, 
the National Council has deemed it the best guarantee of common justice and future peace to 
abide by and maintain the existing laws upon the subject of slavery as a final and conclusive 
settlement of that subject, in spirit and in substance. 

"And regarding it the highest duty to avow their opinions upon a subject so important in 
distinct and unequivocal terms, it is hereby declared, as the sense of this National Council, that 
Congress possesses no power, under the Constitution, to legislate upon the subject of slavery in 
the States where it does or may exist, or to exclude any State from admission into the Union, 
because its constitution does or does not recognize the institution of slavery as a part of its 
social system; and expressly pretermitting any expression of opinion upon the power of Con- 
gress to establish or prohil^it slavery in any Territory, it is the sense of the National Council 
that Congress ought not to legislate upon the subject of slavery v/ithin the Territories of the 
United States, and that any interference by Congress with slavery as it exists in the District 
of Columbia, would be a violation of the spirit and intention of the compact by which the 
Slate of Maryland ceded the District to the United States, and a breach of the national faith." 
There is a platform on the subject of slavery (with the exception of a little 
pretermitting) sound — one upon winch the South could stand. They_ were 
conservative and just ; but what did the northern and the largest portion of 
this so eininently national party do? They repudiated this section; they spit 
upon it ; they met together in their State councils, and there these conservative 
Union savers were not satisfied with a simple repudiation of this twelfth sec- 
tion, but go on to announce doctrines as the doctrines of the party, which, if 
carried out, leads, in the strong language of Mr. Clay, (when speaking of 
refusintr to admit a State because of a constitution tolerating slavery,) " to a 
DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION THROUGH A BLOODY AND 
PERILOUS ROAD." 

I give you a resolution passed by a Know Nothing convention at Cmcm- 
nati in November last, composed of delegates from seven of the northern and 
northwestern States. They declare — 

" That the repeal of the Missouri compromise was an infraction of the plighted faith of the 



11 

nation, and that it should bo roatorod; and if i-flTortfi to that ond should fail, CongrrsB should 
refuse to admit into tlic Union any Stato tol.'rating slavery whi<-h Hhall Ix- fi)rinr d out ol any 
portion of the territory frnm whi.ii that institution was excluded by that compronuHC." 

Yes, they will not admit Kansas if slio applios for admission as a slave 
State; thus, accortlinu^ to the hui'^tinu'f of Mr. Chiy, and tlius, as every niteU 
li£;ent man knows, leadim^Mo the •• ilissnhitifni of t'lu- Cnion Inj a liUxuhj road. 
You see hy this resolution how the Know iNothinj^s in the noiihwcstrni Slates 
stand. I will show you how they stand in the middle States. In the Lej^is- 
lature of Pennsylvania, tlie Know Nolhin<,'s and the IJIack l^epidjlieans. true 
to their instincts and actions, FUSED, and tliey declared, on the l-.'ih day ol 
January, \SbG, in the follow in <; form, to wit : 

" i^fso/i-ei/, Tliat we are oj. posed to tiie admission of any tiwrr slave Statis into this Lnion: 
therefore, 

" Resolved, Tliat Kansas and Xebraska should only he A I >M ri'TI'.r) iii(<. ih, sistcrlmod as free 
States." 

" Opposed to the admission of anij more slave States into tiiis Lnitm : 
tl:e rankest and the most damnahle Free-Soilism, as well as the most direct 
road to dissolution ! 

In INew York — in the Empire State — the Stale which owes its greatness 
to the commerce of the Union as it is — in that State, so bound to us and so 
dependent upon us hy commercial ties, the Know Nothings met there in State 
convention, at Blngliampton, and they, too, join in the swelling chorus of 
Abolitionistn, and resolve as follows : 

" Resolved, That the national Administration, by its general course of official conduct, togellicr 
with an attempt to destroy the repose, harmony, and fraternal relations of the country in the 
repeal of the Missouri compromise, and the encouragement of aysrrcssions upon the govern- 
ment of the territorial inhal)itants of Kansas, deserves and should receive the united condem- 
nation of the .Imerican people, and that the institution of slavery should receive no extension 
from such repeal." 

The meaning of which is, that Kansas, if applying as a slave State, should 
be rejected. This is the platform upon which they went into their last fight! 
This is the platform upon which they gained their victory ! A victory which 
has been so much rejoiced over! A victory which would lead to a dissolution 
of the Union ! Thus stand the Know Nothings of New York ! Let us go 
to the northeastern — the New England States. jVIaine, Connecticut, New 
Hampshire, JMassachusetts, all declare that — 

"Whereas the aggressive policy which has been uniformly pursued by the slave power, 
from the qommencement of our national existence down to the abrogation of the IMissoun 
CDmpact, evinces a determination ' to crush out' the spirit as well as the forms of liberty 
from among us, and to subject the free Slates to a relentless despotism; and whereas the 
success of the southern delegates to the National Council recently held in Philadelphia, in 
making abject and uncomplaining submission to pro-slavery legislation a fundamental article 
in the creed of the national American party, renders it imperative on us to express our views 
upon the great question of the country and the age: Therefore, we declare 

" That the great barrier to slavery, ruthlessly broken by the repeal of the Missouri prohibi- 
tion, ought to be speedily restored; and that, in any event, no State erected from any part of 
the territory covered by lli;U compromise ought ever to be admitted into the Union as a slave 
State!" 



12 

Though I have them at hand, I will not weary and disgust you with any 
more of these nortliern Know Notlnng platforms. I have taken the north- 
west, the center, and the northeast. I have shown you, so that no honest man 
will ever deny it who reads these platforms, that they have gone, utterly gone, 
into practical Aholitionism ; that no Representative — no m.an who values the 
rights of the South — can act with them. 

Do you want more proof? I refer you to the record of the present Con- 
gress. I assert to you that three fourths of the men who elected Banks were 
Know Nothings. I assert to you that not a single northern member of that 
party voted for Governor Aiken for Speaker ! That after all their " loud- 
mouthed" professions of nationality, Fuller dodged ; his precious little band 
of six threw away their votes upon their immortal leader, and thus allowed 
Banks, who was only elected by three votes — who would sink the Union — 
who would " absorb" with the negroes — who has not yet determined whether 
he is better than a negro or not — yes, these northern Know Nothings threw 
away their votes, and allowed this man Banks to be elected Speaker ! 

Will any man of common decency — will any man in Missouri, of ordinary 
self-respect, ever again abuse me for not having acted with the northern 
Fuller party ? 

Instead of getting national Know Nothings from the North for our national 
man, (Governor Aiken,) we really lost" two " South Americans" — Mr. Cullen, 
of Delaware, and Mr. Henry Winter Davis, from IMaryland ! So you v/ill 
see that, instead of the tendencies of the American order being to liberalize 
the North, its practical operation is to Free-Soilize the South ! 

Do you want more proof? I will give it. The Know Nothing convention, 
held at Philadelphia on the 22nd of February, 1856, (the birthday of Wash- 
ington — what a desecration !) repudiate and abolish this twelfth section, on a 
separate and distinct vote, and by an overwhelming majority ; and in its stead 
place a plank which means all things to all men, and of which a member of 
the convention, from Indiana, and a'supporter of it, (Mr. Sheets,) said in that 
convention — 

" He would assure the South that the twelfth section must be got rid of. He was willing 
to accept a compromise, but the section must be got rid of: he was willing to accept the 
Washington platform; for, if there was anything in it, it was so covered up with verbiage 
that a President would be elected before the people would find out what it was all about. 
(Tumultuous laughter.) 

Yes, this infamous sentiment, instead of being received with patriotic indio-- 
nation, was received with "tumultuous laughter!" and the "Washington 
platform," presented by one Parson French S. Evans — the defeated Black 
Republican candidate for Sergeant-at-Arms of the present House — was 
adopted by that convention ! 

Do you want more proof? I think every intelligent, honest man in my 
district, who is not an aspirant for office, will exclaim — " Hold, enough !"' 
But for the benefit of the Know Nothing aspirants for my place in the district, 
I will give two more facts. That the nortlurn portion of that convention 
telegraph to the Black Republican Pittsburg convention, sitting at the same 
time, that the — 

" American party is no longer united. Raise the Republican banner. LET THERE BE 



/ 



13 



NO FURTHER EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. THE AMERICANS ARE WITH 
YOU." 

And the still further .sif^nificant fact, that after tho cxpres-s repudiation of 
the twelfth .section, they denounce in their j)hitforiii the re})eal of tjje Missouri 
compromise line. 

And now — I do notaskthe aspirants for my place — T do not ask those wjio 
want to go as Know IN'othings to the Fji';^islatnre — those who want to he 
sheriffs, county judj,res, squires, or constahles. Sec. — hut I ask the true men of 
my district — the real people, where I have always found niy friend.s — the men 
who have no ohject hut the good of their country at heart, to do as I have 
done — ahandon this organization ! — if it has not failed — utterly, com])lelely, 
entirely failed, as a sound, national, conservative party? — if every intelligent 
man does not know tiiat it has so failed? — and if every honest man will not 
acknowledge the lact ? 

As to the great catch-words, "Americans shall rule America!" — I am in 
favor of Americans ruling America. They do, they always have, and they 
always will rule America. 

But who are Americans ? Your laws declare that, when a man has heen 
here five years — when ho will, under oath, renounce all allegiance to any 
foreign prince, potentate, or Power — when he will prove that he is of "ood 
moral character — attached to the institutions of the United States — he may 
be declared an American, and your law makes him a citizen. It is a fraud 
upon him, if you do not give him all the rights of citizenship ! 

Thiuk of it ! The poor old Pope of Rome, unable even to defend his 
life — to protect himself — has his throne supported and upheld by French 
bayonets ! We have twelve native to one foreign vote in the United States ! 
Why should we fear the l^pe? And cannot twelve Americans manage 
one Irishman ? In the Congress of the United States there is but one for- 
eigner ! In the last Legislature of our State — elected, as the members were, 

before the Know Nothing flood — there was but one; and he was a leadino- 

I might say, without being invidious, the leading member of the Senate ! I 
allude to Colonel C. Zeigler, who came, or was brought to this country when 
an infant eighteen months old ! He is one of the first intellects of our State, 

or any State. He has been my political friend — my personal friend my 

supporter in every aspiration. I submit it to you, if there is not somethini'- 
radically wrong in an organization which would prohibit me from votino- for 
him, merely because he was born outside of the United States, •though 
brought here when a mere child ! I have used his name without his authoritv. 
I know he will pardon me, when he sees that I have only used it to illustrate 
more strongly to our i)eople, than I could by a hundred arguments, the absurd- 
ity of this indiscriminate proscription of foreign-born men from ollice. 

Jf the despotisms of the Old World should ever attempt to destroy our 
Government by sending their population here, I will not, as your Representa- 
tive, pause to talk or argue about our naturalization laws. 1 shall speak and 
vote for prohibiting any foreigner from treading his foot upon our soil ! J 
shall strike at the root — not waste my time and energies in lopj)ing off the 
branches. 

I have always understood that three grand leading ideas run throun-h our 
institutions, giving them all of their vitality, their beauty, and their power. 



14 

First, that the people are capable of self-government. This is the doctrine 
of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Second, that we had made an asylum to 
which the oppressed of every land might come as a refuge; that here they 
might worship as equals at the altar of our liberty; that here they might lift 
up their hearts to their God, according to the dictates of their consciences, 
and there should be none to molest them. Third, that there should be no aris- 
tocracy of birth. I have regarded, and do regard, these as the peculiar pride 
and boast of my country. I regard them as the three grand and massive pil- 
lars upon which the whole magnificent structure of our Government rests. I 
will not, by any action of mine, deface or mar these pillars. 

I have been often asked if I am not in favor of reorganizing the Whig party ? 
I answer that, in the present condition of parties and the country, in my 
judgment, such an effort can do no good, and might do great harm. 

1 say to you, that we have no sound material North out of which to re- 
construct that party. Loftk back at the past. Every Whig Representative 
from the North, in 1849, voted for the Wilmot proviso. But three of them 
out of seventy-three voted for the fugitive slave law — that law which does 
but common justice to the South, and which is commanded by the Constitu- 
tion itself! Not one. Whig north of Mason and Dixon's line voted for the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1854 ! On all these measures a majority of the 
northern Democrats voted with the South. Have we, then, not reached that 
point, in the North, presupposed by Mr. Clay when he said, " If the Whig 
party ever becomes merged into a contemptible Abolition party, I will aban- 
don it in disgust ?" and should not we, his old followers, take his implied coun- 
sel and his proposed example, when he says, " I will act with that party, 
whatever its name may be, that s,tands by the Constitution and the Union ?" 
To endeavor novk'- to reorganize the Whig party, would be but to divide and 
distract the sound national men of the South. 

Where have we an ally in the North, outside of the Democratic organiza- 
tion? These allies have been true to us in the past. With a patriotic de- 
votion to the union of the States, and a patriotic regard to the constitutional 
rights of the South, they have bared their bosoms to the ragings of the storm 
— they have stood unmoved, while malignity and fanaticism have poured their 
fiery torrents upon them. I take them to my heart as political brothers, and 
wear and cherish them there. 

How stands the Democratic party ? I have given you the resolution of the 
present members of Congress. 

Listen to Ohio 1 Steeped as she has been in Free-Soilism ; in State conven- 
tion assembled, with the boldness of right — with the candor of manhood, they 
declare, on the 8th day of January last, as follows : 

" 1. Resolved, That slavery (being the creature, of positive law, cannot exist without it) is a 
domestic institution, ai)d that Congress has neither the power to legislate it into any Territory 
or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and 
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States. 

" 2. Resolved, That the right of the people of each particular State and Territory to establish 
their own constitution or form of government, to choose and regulate their own domestic 
institutions of every kind, and to legislate for themselves, is a fundamental princinle of all free 
government; and that it is the self-same right to secure which our ancestors waged the war 



c 



15 

of thn Revolution— a right lyinj; nl llin very foiindiition of till our frco insliiiitions, recognized 
ir the Declaration of Indopi-ndriice, mid cHtaMisliud by llio CoiiBtilulion of iho United Suites; 
and we hereby indorse luid reullirni this note disputed principle. " 

Contrast this witli the resolves of the Know IVotliing convention at Cin- 
cinnati. 

Listen to Indiana, as slic, too, speaks in her Democratic State convention. 
She says : 

" Resolved, That we npprovo tlie principles of liie i-oni]>roniiMi; nieii«ure!s of J8o0, nnd their 
applictition, na embodied in the Knnsus-Nebrnska bill, and will faithfully maintuin iheni." 

Hear the Democracy of New York, as they, too, in convention declare: 

" Eesolved, That the determination of Congress, avowed in the Kannas-Nebraska bill, to 
reject from the national councils tlie subject of slavery in the Territories, and to leave the 
people thereof free to regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
Constitution of the United States, is one that accords with the sentiments of the Democracy of 
the Stale, and with the traditional course of legislation by Congress, which, under Democratic 
auspices, has gradually, in successive territorial bills, extended the domain of popular rights 
and limited the range of congressional action; and that we believe this disposition of the 
question will result most auspiciously to the peace of the Union and the cause of good govern- 
ment." 

All, everywhere, from IMaino to Texas, speak the same language, declare 
the same principles, and rally under the same flag ! Is not this party national? 
Contrast these resolves with the Aict, that the Know JNothing party, but two 
years old, has managed, even in that short time, to be in favor of secrecy 
against secrecy, in favor of test oaths against test oaths — in some States for the 
Catholic test, in others against the Catholic test — on one side of the Union 
for the twelfth section, on the other side against the twelfth section ; and in 
their late convention, at one time the southern chivalry bolt, at anotlier the 
northern Free-Soilers bolt, and tell me if you can support such a i)arty, even 
though Millard Fillmore is its candidate for the presidency 1 

As to the Black Republican party, it now has the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives. Encouraged by past successes, it has become insolently 
bold, and grasps with an eager hand for the reins of Government. If it suc- 
ceeds, if it elects a President, and gets possession of both Houses of Congress, 
it will carry out its infamous circle of measures : the repeal of the fugitive 
slave law, the abolishment of slavery in the District of Columbia, interdict 
the inter-slave trade between the States, restore the Missouri restriction, and 
refuse to admit any more slave States ! Who is it that does not know the 
Union would not survive an hour ? Our danger is not from the Pope, not 
from foreigners, but is from the Abolitionists. What, then, is our first solemn, 
patriotic duty? It is that we should band together as one man. It is that 
we sliould each bring his former prejudices and lay them down upon the altar 
of our country — that we should leave the past to '•' bury its own dead,"' and 
look to and fight alone for the preservation of the Constitution and the Union ! 

I liave seen the Democracy come down from the North and up from the 
South, and gathering in solid column around the Constitution, declare that the 
rights of the South, the just equality of the States, the capacity of man for 
self-government, are their bonds of brotherhood ; that they will protect that 
Constitution against all the assaults of all the isms in the land. While they 



^^ LIBRARV OF CONGRESS 




continue to occupy this proud position, I am v 
God, I believe that the Democratic is the 
which we can beat back this Abohtion horde 
beUeve, I shall continue to act with them ; an "g 011 897 
the victory is achieved, when our gallant old snip is again afloat in the sun- 
shine and upon quiet seas, I shall turn round to my Democratic brethren, and, 
if I have any unadjusted quarrels, I will settle them then. 

And now, fellow-citizens, I submit if I have not redeemed my pledge, that 
I would set myself Aiirly, fully, frankly before you. I trust that my position 
will meet with your approval. If it should not, I have only to say that it has 
been taken after due deliberation — taken under a solemn sense of duty to you 
and the country. My opinions are my honest convictions, and if disapproved, 
I can retire from office. I cannot yield those convictions. I throw myself 
upon a generosity and kindness which took me by the hand when all obscure 
and unknown, and lifted me up to a seat in the Congress of the United States, 
and which, when slandered and abused in my last canvass, during my absence, 
sustained me with an emphatic indorsement. I submit it fearlessly, confidently 
to you, whether I shall return to my home under the frown of your condem- 
nation, or whether I will again be greeted with that plaudit ever so dear to a 
public man, "Well done, tliou good and faithful servant!" 

In any event, I am truly yours, 

SAMUEL CARUTHERS 

House of Representatives, 

Washington, February 28, 1856. 



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